Solstice Fires (yuletide/Christmas poem)

Solstice fires burn bright as newborn stars
shedding warmth where frost - wolf's icy breath
silvers streams, kisses each leafless branch,
making the eternal mother yield.
Frosted buds glitter like frozen tears
as nature mourns the mother's little death;
dark demons spread a heavy shroud to blanch
colour from the woodland, heath and field.

But of each thing a little spark, preserved
and tended by the ones who serve the flame
survives to light embryo season's birth,
'til life returns one more, vibrant and green.
Reaching higher each day the pale sun curves,
not strong enough to set the sky aflame.
So while nature languishes in dearth,
this darkest night the solstice fires burn.

The reference here to "frost -wolf" perhaps needs clarification as in many ancient mythologies of the northern lands there are wolf myths connected with winter and long dark nights. This reference is actually to the names of the full moons. The wolf moon is the last full moon of the pagan year (in this part of the world at least) and so its "icy breath" is the air during the long nights around solstice.

Names of the full moon through the year:
January, Cold moon; February, Snow moon; March, Sap or worm moon; April, Blossom moon May, Flower moon; June, Strawberry or rose moon; July ,Buck moon; (Male deer, or bucks, grow their first antlers during this month); August, Salmon moon; September, Harvest or corn moon;
October,Hunter's moon; November, Beaver moon (no jokes please); December, Wolf or hunger moon; If anyone is wondering about the blue moon, that occurs when there are two full moons in a single calendar months - the second is a blue moon.